


Forgotten Casseroles

by mountain_ash



Series: Things I Write on Tumblr dot com [4]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-03
Updated: 2016-02-03
Packaged: 2018-05-17 23:10:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5888803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mountain_ash/pseuds/mountain_ash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>How I believe Stiles and Derek really could have met, given the timelines and werewolf powers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Forgotten Casseroles

**Author's Note:**

> Parts I and II originally on tumblr [here](http://a-mountain-ash.tumblr.com/post/149986265285/forgotten-casseroles-part-i) and [here](http://a-mountain-ash.tumblr.com/post/149986269070/forgotten-casserole-part-ii)!!

After Claudia died, his dad disappeared. Not literally, but in every other meaningful version of the word it was true. The Sheriff was not present in Stiles’s life and he was largely left to himself and the casseroles he continued to find daily on their doorstep even months after her passing. Stiles was not the only person who knew how absent his father had become.

His schoolwork held little challenge or interest for him so he took to reading the daily paper and absorbing the minute details of life both local and worldly. One day, about four months after Claudia’s death, the front page caught his attention: _Family perishes in house fire._ Catastrophes didn’t happen often in Beacon Hills, so Stiles read the story and learned of the terrible and baffling fire in the preserve that had killed 11, incapacitated another, and left two children alone to fend for themselves. Reading of the dead family did nothing but intensify the young boy’s panic attacks and so when he heard whispers about the upcoming memorial service, Stiles decided to go and attempt to gain closure on the situation. 

He biked out to the preserve where the memorial was being held and watched from behind a tree as a young woman he recognized as the surviving daughter began to speak. The tree was too far to hear, but Stiles could easily see the grief in her face as she spoke. Suddenly branches rustled from above him and Stiles head shot up to look just as a boy leapt down to stand before him.

“What are you doing here?” He asked angrily, heavy black eyebrows furrowed close to his eyes. “This is a private ceremony.”

Stiles recognized him as the other child who had survived the fire. Derek had been his name. He wanted to apologize for his trespass but the boy was so much bigger than him and so angry and Stiles wasn’t sure he was capable of telling his reason coherently. The anxiety built in his chest as Derek yelled at him again to leave and suddenly his breath turned shallow and the trees spun around him and he fell back against the tree in panic.

“Are you okay?” Derek was asking, his voice booming and distorted in Stiles’s ears. He had forgotten his inhaler and didn’t know how to stop the attack without it. He wanted to run away but he couldn’t get air enough into his lungs to move, so he simply sank down against the tree. Derek was staring at him, Stiles knew that much, but he didn’t seem to know what to do.

“Can I touch you?” He asked slowly, loudly, as if knowing Stiles needed it that way.

Stiles lifted his head as much as he could against the spinning world but didn’t open his eyes as he nodded hesitantly. Suddenly a gentle hand was pressed lightly to his face and the heavy fear in his mind seemed to fall away. Gradually the vertigo passed and Stiles opened his eyes to see Derek crouching in front him, his veins bulging black up the arm he held out to Stiles. 

On instinct he pulled away, but Derek grabbed his wrist softly. “Stop,” he whispered so gently Stiles wasn’t sure it was the same person that jumped from the tree. “I’m just helping you feel better.”

“How?”

“I can’t tell you that. But you do feel better right?”

Stiles looked hesitantly up at the older boy unsure of it he really wanted to tell him he felt better, but he sadness he saw in his face wouldn’t let him lie. This boy needed comfort just as much as he did. Stiles nodded. 

“Do you need a ride home?” Derek asked.

“N-no. I b-biked.” Stiles stammered out, his nerves still controlling him.  
With that he picked himself up and ran off, suddenly incapable of being there anymore. Before he could forget, though, he turned around and said, “I’m sorry about your family.”

All he could remember was the wide-eyed look Derek had fixed him with when he’d said those words. 

Back home he realized he hadn’t been very polite or done any of the normal funeral things, so he forced himself to stay up late until his dad got home.

“What are you still doing up, kiddo?” The Sheriff asked wearily. He was always tired.

“Do you know where Derek and Laura Hale are living right now?”

“Well Laura is 18, so I think she’s looking for an apartment, but they’re staying at The Hill Lodge for now. Why?” 

“I met Cora at a chess tournament once.” Stiles lied. “I figured I would go tell them I’m sorry.”

“That’s nice of you kiddo.” His dad said absently. 

A fresh casserole came the next day from one of the deputies and Stiles packed it into his bike’s basket and headed over to the hotel. He asked for their room number at the front desk before timidly heading that way and setting the big dish beside the door. On it was a note that read: _Please return to Deputy Moore at the police station.  
_

Stiles left a new casserole at the hotel room for the next five days. On the sixth day he set down a big tuna fish casserole from Mrs. Newman down the street and turned to leave when he heard the door creak open behind him.

“So you’re the one leaving all the food.” Derek’s voice was more gruff than it had been when they’d met and when Stiles turned around he found the older boy looking significantly more haggard. 

“Um, yeah.” Stiles replied in a small voice, the same irrational self-consciousness flooding through him as the first time. 

“Why didn’t you ever just knock?” Derek didn’t sound mad, but he certainly sounded confused. 

“Well, I don’t know how to cook anything more than mac and cheese.” Started Stiles, not having prepared to answer this question. “But my mom died a while ago and people keep leaving me casseroles because my dad doesn’t have enough time to cook for me. I didn’t want to take credit for food I hadn’t cooked, but I didn’t want to tell you about my mom because this is your time to feel sad not mine so I figured I would just leave them in secret and tell you who to return them to.”

Derek appraised him softly for a few moments and Stiles shrank under the attention. He still wasn’t sure what Derek had done to him that day in the woods when he’d eased the discomfort of the panic attack, but the boy made him nervous. Stiles wasn’t sure what he was preparing himself for but suddenly Derek spoke quietly.

“We can both be sad, you know?” Derek knelt down and picked up the dish before holding it out briefly to Stiles. “My casserole can be your casserole.”

Stiles looked up in surprise before breaking into a fit of giggles at the awkwardly worded offer, but he sobered up when he noticed the hurt look on Derek’s face.

“Are you saying I can eat with you guys?” He asked more seriously.

Derek dipped his chin and smiled shyly. “You sound like you need someone too.”

“Y-you mean it?“ Stiles asked, looking up at Derek bashfully. 

The older boy raised an amused eyebrow. “Why wouldn’t I mean it? You don’t have anyone else to eat with, right?” He watched as Stiles kicked at the concrete, looking incredibly frustrated. Derek didn’t like admitting to his sadness as much as this kid apparently didn’t. “Right. So why don’t you come in and share this with Laura and me.”

Stiles looked up at him in surprise, despite this being Derek’s second time making the offer. His wide brown eyes were utterly endearing. When the younger boy didn’t respond Derek turned around and moved to the door, purposefully holding it open until Stiles finally decided to move his feet and join.

Laura was a little confused by Stiles’s general presence, but Derek could tell she found his presence soothing. After all, he was Cora’s age and between the brown eyes, dark hair, and expressive eyebrows, there really was a familiar air about him. Despite his initial timidity at being offered to join, Stiles dug into the food with fervor and something a little unnerving occurred to Derek.

“Have you been eating enough?”

“Of course.” Stiles replied offhandedly without looking up from his plate. Derek heard the tick in the boy’s rapid heart rate. 

“I can tell when you lie.” Derek said before realizing what he was doing. 

Laura looked up from her plate in alarm. “Derek!” He immediately wilted in his seat, not yet accustomed to Laura being his alpha.

Stiles watched the exchange in absorbed interest.

“It’s okay. I already know he’s magic.” Stiles’s voice had that childlike innocence that hadn’t quite faded yet, despite his current state of grief and self-dependence.

Laura practically sputtered and Derek rubbed at his brow in worry. Laura wasn’t going to be happy with this one, and he was definitely going to hear worse about it later.

“What do you mean by magic, kiddo?” She asked with a smile, trying to keep the tension out of her voice.

“He jumped out of a really high tree without any trouble and then he took my pain away when I met him last week. Now he says he can tell when I lie. My dad’s a cop, I don’t miss much.”

Derek almost chuckled at how precocious the little kid was, but Laura’s murderous glance his direction quelled the impulse immediately. He personally didn’t see the harm in telling Stiles the truth. No one would actually believe him and he seemed like a pretty cloistered kid anyway, but Derek didn’t bother petitioning the idea because Laura would never go for it. After what had just happened with the fire, no one was likely to ever be allowed into their secret again. 

“That’s nothing kiddo. Derek’s just an athletic kid with a few tricks up his sleeve.” Derek watched as Stiles swallowed the lie with another bite of casserole but he smelled suspicion on him and knew Laura did too.

The dinners continued that way for a week, but they were never really any different. Stiles would bike over with a new type of casserole, Derek would plate it out and then proceed to watch his sister as she looked over the kids features smelling like pity and regret. He knew what was coming. 

“We’re heading out tomorrow Derek. You should pack up your stuff.”

He stood straight in alarm. “Leaving?“

“You’ll have a chance to say goodbye to Stiles tonight, but we have no choice. Other alphas are starting to get interested in taking my power. We have to go somewhere we won’t be found.”

For all that Derek was horrified by the prospect of leaving Stiles behind after the tiny, tenuous comfort they had found in each other, he was not the least bit surprised Laura was hauling them out. Beacon Hills was far too small and exposed for them to hide and the longer they stayed, the harder it would be to get away safely. Still. Stiles. The boy’s voice and tiny smile and rapid heartbeat and tapping fingers wouldn’t leave Derek’s head no matter how he tried focusing on packing his things and the noise of it all built and built.

“You have to take his memories!” He burst after trying to contain himself for far too long. It wasn’t a suggestion Laura was likely to take kindly to. 

“It’ll leave a scar. A sign we were here.” She declined bluntly.

“No it won’t. I listened to some of mom’s lessons. It’s easy to take young people’s memories. You’ll hardly have to break the skin to get such a new memory out. He won’t even have a scar. Then we just drop him at the hospital and say we found him in the preserve when we were walking from the house.” 

Laura sighed and Derek could tell he was wearing her down. “Why is this so important?”

“Because he’s already lost his mom, his dad’s hardly around, his best friend doesn’t understand what he’s going through, and I don’t want him to think one more person in his life abandoned him.” The genuineness of the confession surprised Derek but he continued with is final request. “And I want you to take my memory too.”

She looked truly affronted by that. “Why?”

The younger werewolf looked guiltily down at his feet. “I don’t deserve to remember.”

“Remember what?”

“How easily he made me forget.”

The sadness and guilt that washed off of Derek proved the tipping point in convincing her and that night Derek hugged Stiles tightly before sending him home. Laura crept into his bedroom late in the night to steal the memories while the little boy slept. They were so easy to take she barely left a mark, though she took care to wipe the minute amounts of blood from the cuts. Derek watched her from outside his window, shivering from the force of his regret, despite the warm temperature and still air. 

Back at the hotel, Laura instructed Derek to sit and then proceeded to shove her claws significantly deeper into the back of his neck. The burning pressure of her claws faded as he felt aspects of his mind leave him and the process ended up being curiously relaxing. 

“You won’t remember a thing.” Laura spoke loud and clear as her claws pulled from his neck. Derek heard the lie in her voice but didn’t know what she was lying about. The next morning they flew to New York.

~~~~~~~~

Six years passed and found Derek back in the heart of Beacon Hills, searching for his sister’s murderer, trying to protect a brand new unwitting beta, and hopelessly wondering if his life hadn’t become a huge spiral karmic joke. He was back in the old preserve when he sensed the presence of the new beta, Scott, and his ridiculous best friend and moved quickly to confront them.

“What are you doing here? Huh? This is private property.”

The gangling pale boy looked up and looked suddenly very confused. “Uh, sorry, man, we didn’t know.”

Derek proceeded to tell them off before returning Scott’s inhaler and turning to go. His ears abruptly honed in on the other boy’s voice though and something in the tone and cadence rang familiar in his mind. ‘Dude, that was Derek Hale. You remember, right?…’ Derek shook his head fiercely, trying to get the sound of the boy’s voice out of his mind. How did he know so much about him? Why did he sound so familiar? 

The werewolf shoved the inconsequential worries from his mind as he got farther from the boy’s penetrating voice. He wasn’t important right now. 

But he would be.

To say that Stiles and Derek didn’t get along would be a massive understatement. Derek could barely tolerate the new beta Scott for his naive persistence at trying to maintain his old life and Stiles was a frustrating conundrum. The boy wasn’t nearly as obstinate as his best friend, but he did seem determined to distrust Derek with every fiber of his being. He wasn’t sure why it was so frustrating but since the moment he’d seen the boy something had itched at him about it and he could barely tolerate Stiles because of it.

Events continued to force Stiles into his life for the next year and Derek begrudgingly gave into the itch so gradually he wasn’t always aware it was happening. He simply knew that he had to protect Stiles at all costs and found himself constantly in his presence whether he had consciously sought the contact or not.

They danced around one another for about a year, gradually growing closer and learning to trust one another. When Stiles started dating Malia something reared up inside Derek and seeing the werecoyote left a bitter tang in his mouth. He strove to tamp down the strange jealousy for Stiles’s sake but it was a hard thing, so when Braeden came along, he jumped at the opportunity for comfort and company.

Just before he died, Derek told Stiles to leave him and go find Scott. It went against every desire in his body to send the boy- the one source of real comfort he had found in his never ending disappointment of a life- away, but he had to do it. If he was going to die, he needed to know that Stiles had managed to at least get away to try and save his best friend. The look Stiles fixed him with before turning away had freely spoken volumes of loss and fear, unguarded by he walls he typically wore, and Derek realized that even if he couldn’t smell the boy’s feelings he could read them clearly upon his face. They loved each other and couldn’t be together.

Derek stayed away for as long as he could tolerate, but when Lydia called one day and invited him to their graduation he was torn.

“I’m not sure I-” he started with an excuse.

“Stiles wants you there.” Lydia interrupted and Derek’s brain froze.

“He said that?”

“He keeps a text in his phone. I see him just sitting sometimes, holding his finger over the button before stopping himself.”

“If he wanted me there, he’d press send.” Derek didn’t want to give his feelings away though he knew Lydia had known for ages.

“He’s embarrassed, Derek. He thinks you’ve moved on to better things.” She said patiently. “Older people.”

Derek actually scoffed before realizing he should stop himself and turned pink, grateful Lydia couldn’t see him.

“Look. Just text him and ask him when it is. He’ll think it’s your idea and save him some anxiety. I don’t know how you’ve been, but he’s had a bad year, Derek. This would be a good thing for him.”

The werewolf’s stomach clenched upon hearing that. He had no idea what had been going on in Beacon Hills. Scott has ordered him to stay uninvolved, apparently wanting him to finally have some peace in his life.

“Thanks Lydia.”

Derek: Hey Stiles. You guys have graduation coming up right? Is there any chance I could come and watch?

There was radio silence for several days during which time he couldn’t be sure whether Stiles had changed his number and Lydia had forgotten (unlikely) or he was ignoring him. His worries were alleviated when his phone finally buzzed.

Stiles: You want to come? That’s awesome! It’s next Friday at 11 am. You sold the loft right? Do you want me to get you a hotel?

It was an odd request and Derek could feel the forced enthusiasm but he did indeed need a hotel and if Stiles wanted to be helpful, he was going to let him.

Derek: That would be great, thanks. I’ll fly in on the Wednesday. How long should I stay for?

Stiles: How long can you stay?

Forever, Derek wanted to say. However long you want me to stay.

Derek: I don’t have any commitments.

Stiles: I won’t put a check-date in then.

Stiles: Let me know when you need to be picked up at the airport.

Derek’s heart leapt unreasonably. Stiles not wanting him to leave. Stiles offering to pick him up at the airport. Stiles wanting him.

Derek: I’ll keep in touch.

Derek: Congratulations, by the way.

Two weeks crawled and Derek couldn’t figure out what to get Stiles for a graduation gift. The others were easy. Lydia got an ancient Archaic Latin tome, Scott got a new riding jacket, Kira got a new katana harness, and Malia got a deed to part of the preserve where she could go and run without getting seen, but Stiles was too difficult. Everything was too big or too small and nothing was meaningful. The night before he flew out he texted the Sheriff a simple question and finally knew the perfect thing. He would fix the Jeep.

Stiles was taller than him now, when they stood a few feet apart at the airport, looking each other over. In all the time they’d known each other, they had touched plenty, but never hugged, and Derek didn’t know if that was something they did. Stiles alleviated his fears by lunging in suddenly and holding him close. The young man smelled so familiar, but different. Anxiety, exhaustion, and sadness tainted his scent more than in the past, and Derek felt distinctly responsible for it somehow.

They drove in silence, the Jeep rattling discomfitingly as they moved along. The way ahead quickly became familiar and Derek grew confused as he saw where they were.

“What made you pick this hotel?” He asked.

Stiles glanced at him strangely. “I don’t know. I just picked it. I got to pick your room too.”

Derek looked back at him. “Which one did you pick?”

“11. What’s this about, Derek? Why’re you being so weird?”

The werewolf couldn’t make sense of any of it, but Stiles had picked this particular place for some reason.

“This is where my sister and I lived for the two weeks after the fire before we left for New York.”

Stiles scrunched up his face in confusion. “Oh. I have no idea why I picked it. It just felt like it was a good place.”

Derek lay awake for hours wondering about the seeming coincidence before he decided there was only one thing he could about it. Climbing out of bed, he fully shifted and ran out to where the house used to be. He could smell Laura’s bones in the ground where he’d buried her after the county had returned her body to him. He set to work digging through the soft soil with his big paws until he reached the the wolfsbane protected encasing. Before he evolved removing her from the protective measure would have been impossible but in this form he could withstand it long enough to reach her remains.

Shifting back into human form he sifted reverently through her bones until he found the claws. Derek slipped back into the shorts he’d thought to carry on his jaws on the way there and ran to Scott’s house where he tapped at the window until the young alpha woke. He looked confused but smiled when he realized who it was at the window.

“Derek!”

“I’m sorry to wake you. I meant to just see you all at graduation tomorrow but I need a favor.•

“Uh, sure man. What is it?”

Holding how the claws, Derek explained what he needed Scott to do.

When the sharp points sunk into his neck he seized for a moment before suddenly finding himself immersed in first the preserve, then room 11, then outside of Stiles’s window, all occurring 8 years ago.

He gasped when the memory ended and broke away from Scott’s grip, breathing heavily.

“Derek! Are you okay?”

“Fine, fine.” He huffed. “I need the claws though. I need to see Stiles.”

He felt bad leaving Scott behind so confused like that, but this was too important to put off and he needed to see Stiles immediately.

He was lying awake in bed, appearing equally distracted when Derek reached the familiar window and rapped at the glass. Stiles jumped, but quickly moved to undo the latch.

“What’re you doing here?” He asked awkwardly, quickly grabbing a pair of sweats to pull on over his boxers.

“We knew each other!” Derek forced out, forgetting context. “When we were kids I mean. You came to our memorial service and I scared you but you started bringing casseroles over to Laura and me at the inn. But I asked her to remove those memories when we had to move away because I didn’t want you to feel abandoned.”

Stiles fell back onto his bed and stared at Derek for so long the werewolf wasn’t sure he would ever respond. He looked shocked and smelled confused.

“How do you know?”

“I found Laura’s claws.” Derek held them out to show Stiles. “I can give yours back if you want to.”

The human stared at him for a while longer, his pulse quickening, before finally speaking.

“You don’t need to.” He whispered.

“You- you don’t want them?” Derek couldn’t quite believe it.

“They aren’t in there.” Stiles answered, pointing vaguely at the claws. “Laura never took them.”

Derek’s legs literally fell away beneath him and he sank to the floor in shock. His thoughts flew back to the night Laura had ‘taken’ the memories and he recalled how shallow the punctures had been, how quickly she had accomplished the task, how she had gone out on some vague errand the next morning before they left.

“She talked to me that next morning about how you wanted her to take my memories so I wouldn’t feel like you’d abandoned me, but she couldn’t in conscious do it because I didn’t ask for it. She said she wanted me to remember in case we ever met again, so I could help you remember some day, but I wasn’t allowed to give it away until I thought you were ready. I wanted to, that first time we met, but you were so angry and so different, and I really wasn’t sure if you had killed Laura or not. I was scared to let you remember, so I kept it to myself and lied very carefully.”

Derek couldn’t believe it, but it also made a lot of sense, especially Stiles’s constant nearness throughout the years.

“I wanted to tell you a long time ago, but you had so many people constantly betraying you left and right and I couldn’t bare possibly just being one more of them.”

He looked so ashamed and so afraid as he spoke, not looking up to meet Derek’s eye. The older man entertained thoughts of anger for about a second before realizing that Stiles had done the best he could with a massive secret that he himself had asked be kept. He stepped the few feet over to the bed and gripped Stiles’s chin in his hands, tilting his head up so they could look at each other.

“I’m sorry I tried taking that from you. And I’m sorry you had to struggle with that for so long.” Stiles smiled slightly and Derek let his hand slide from cupping his chin to cupping his cheek. Stiles’s heart rate hikes for a moment in surprise before he leaned his head into Derek’s hand, his eyes slipping closed in contentment.

“You’re not going to leave again are you?” He asked some time later.

“No, not again.”

“Good.” Stiles answered with a smile. “Because I’m baking some mean graduation casserole.”

**Author's Note:**

> Comments always appreciated and come visit me on [tumblr](http://a-mountain-ash.tumblr.com/)!


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